Let's talk about how we can practically apply critical thinking and research in our day to day lives while communicating any kind of professional, public and personal judgements and eventually advocate for social justice!

 As we grow older, we observe, experience, and eventually try and understand the world better. Have you ever wondered "Oh this is not how I pictured the world to be!" or "Why is everything around me so confusing, what exactly is the truth, and what exactly is not?" or "That's really cool or is it?" or "Am I really beautiful or am I not?"

As adolescents or as "growing up to be adults" we might experience a ton of thoughts that sometimes are influenced by what is being fed to us by the media or the society at large. When we look around us today, what do we see? Conflicts, hatred, oppression, dharnas, etc, and many of us don't even understand why is there so much hatred or conflicts, many of us don't even talk about any of it or read enough whatsoever because somewhere or the other we think these issues don't affect us or because there is a kind of privilege that we have that prevents us from indulging in these issues. To stay apolitical is also a privilege, isn't it? Whatever the reason may be, as individuals, I believe it is important for us to question everything that is happening in and around us. Question even the smallest of the small events, for example, why is the Indian audience largely drawn towards cricket and not football? Or why is it a big deal when there is a match between India and Pakistan? or What is the meme culture? or Why does GenZ have some definition of "coolness" or "sexiness" and how all of that promotes the objectification of women? or Why does this generation feel so lonely, is there a world beyond all those classy Instagram posts and stories? 

A thousand such questions pop up once you sit and really start thinking. What is the root? What do we do? How can we contribute towards building a better place for all? Often we tend to not mix our personal, professional, and public life, however, when you think about it they all are interconnected in some way or another. The values that we possess would ultimately affect our personal, professional as well our public life. Our personal life would definitely affect our public life. How you happen to interact with your surroundings would be influenced by what you have been facing in your personal life. How you grow up, the values that you have inculcated over the years through your personal experience would definitely take a toll on your public life. Remember, the art and the artist cannot be separated!

THE CORE COMPETENCIES AND THE RELEVANCE AND APPLICATION OF CRITICAL THINKING TO CONVEY PROFESSIONAL JUDGEMENTS IN PERSONAL,, PUBLIC AND PROFESSIONAL LIFE.  

As a social work trainee, I have realized how much of a role a social worker has to play in making this world a better place to live in. Pursuing social work has taught me several things, it has made me realize how vital my role is in shaping the environment not just as a social worker but as an individual. Social work as a profession is often devalued especially in India where engineers and doctors are mostly given the preference, however, again why have they been given the preference is also something that we must question. We often forget how vital of a role a social worker plays, more so the learnings that we gather in the due process are even more enriching and can be applied not just in the professional but private and public life as well. 

We have been introduced to certain core competencies and codes of ethics which I believe are something we all must follow in our day-to-day lives regardless of whether we are social workers or not. We need to realize that we are a part of a society that is guided by certain institutions, structures, etc and we all play a role or contribute something or the other. 

So let me introduce to you the core competencies of social work practice:

1. Identify as a professional social worker and conduct oneself accordingly.

2. Apply social work ethical principles to guide professional practice.

3. Apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments.

4. Engage diversity and difference in practice.

5. Advance human rights and social and economic justice.

6. Engage in research-informed practice and practice-informed research.

7. Apply knowledge of human behavior and the social environment.

8. Engage in policy practice to advance social and economic well-being and to deliver effective social work services.

9. Respond to contexts that shape practice.

10. Engage, assess, intervene, and evaluate with individuals, families, groups, organizations, and communities.

All of these core competencies are very important and help in the process of reflection, understanding, and intervening however amongst these I would like to talk about "to apply critical thinking to inform and communicate professional judgments" and since I believe this particular competency has affected and has had a positive impact on my personal, professional and public life. It however does not have to be professional judgment but personal as well.

DON'T BE BLINDED!

When we say critical thinking we distinguish, appraise, and integrate multiple sources of knowledge, including research-based knowledge, and practice wisdom. This is very evident in our day-to-day life, something that we often fail at. Before we come to any conclusion it is very important to critically think as to whether I am making the correct assumption or not, I must educate myself, do some research and some analysis and then make a conclusion. It is very evident how the mainstream media and the society and system at large have had a huge influence on us and how we must unlearn and sensitize people as we have had the opportunity and the exposure. This is so evident in small instances in our day-to-day life. Like for example, not very long ago we lost Bipin Rawat, the Chief of Defence Staff, and the entire nation was crying, howling however 2 days, before his death almost 20 civilians were killed due to unjust firing because of the prevalence of an unjust law, which is the AFSPA and the entire nation was silent except the tribal communities who have been fighting against this law since time immemorial. Now analysis and critical thinking in this situation would be while general Rawat lost his life due to an accident, the civilians lost their life due to an unjust firing by people in uniforms just because they have the power to do so. Now which one is unjust? We should be raising our voices and revolting against the wrong, while people in not just Nagaland but many other northeastern states have suffered tremendously, women have been raped, people have been killed, we fail to even talk about it. We have successfully turned a blind eye to the revolts led by the people, by Irom Sharmila who fasted for over 5,574 days for AFSPA to be repealed. We continue to worship people in uniform and disregard the abuse of authority practiced by them. Have we read as to what General Rawat has done during his tenure? No. We think we don't need to since he was the General of Defence. Now since he is no more we must mourn and toss the killings/murders of almost 20 Nagas aside. More so, the mainstream media also plays a major role in contributing to this blind hero-worshiping that prevails. People see what is being shown until it really affects them, isn't that how psychology works? Another fact is, people, lack adequate knowledge, many think the AFSPA needs to be there to maintain "law and order" but there is so much more to that which the media will never cover or show. Shooting people mercilessly without any reason does not help maintain law and order, does it? To add, the mainland activists are comparing this incident with Kashmir, again because they do not understand that AFSPA has been prevailing in Nagaland since 1958 whereas it extended to Kashmir in the 1990s. Both Nagaland and Kashmir are fighting their own battles and it is so wrong to compare both. There are so many factors at play that it will take forever to pen everything down but what needs to be paid attention to here is, how much important it is to CRITICALLY THINK and DO ADEQUATE RESEARCH, and READ before we conclude something or pass a judgment. This is the public realm that I am talking about. Earlier even I used to bow down to the army since that is what I have seen and grew up with, respect the armed forces regardless. However, as I grew up, as I read I understood where the violation of human rights is taking place. How we must not blindly worship people in uniform. How we must question everything and be observant and critically think about issues or about what is being fed. How important it is to read, do research and understand and not just accept all that the mainstream media and the system feeds. 

Another example can be, the emergence of K-pop. I personally was not a big K-Pop enthusiast.

I never really liked K-Pop and used to use homophobic slurs when my sibling used to watch BTS since the media and the patriarchal society at large have influenced and impacted my way of thinking. I used to think to be masculine or to be a man one has to have a body or must look a certain type which is so wrong. After I entered the K-Pop world, I realized how much respect BTS deserves and the hatred that they get is not because of their music but because of the way they look or because they are an Asian boy band and since the Western pop culture and capitalism has taken over the world, it has become very difficult for people to acknowledge these boy bands without even listening to their music or knowing them. I have met people who talk rubbish about BTS when I ask them "have you ever listened to them?" the answer is always no and another ignorance that prevails is considering every K-pop band to be BTS. People don't even understand that K-pop is a genre. This shows the level of ignorance that exists. The ability to critically think and do adequate research applies here as well. Now, I am trying to understand how the notion of masculinity and patriarchy has been affecting all spheres of our life. The idea to be a particular type, the idea that men must not cry and women are weak stems from how patriarchy has been prevailing since time immemorial, how this toxic masculinity has not just oppressed women all these years but has also affected men who effeminate or do not fit in the traditional standards of masculinity. It has also affected the non-binary population and how they have been struggling and have faced severe oppression from the patriarchal society at large. This understanding has also helped me reflect upon my personal life and how I have been denied freedom and faced assault and asked to keep shut because of my gender. I have felt vulnerable at so many levels in so many instances because of how society has treated me as a girl. All these understandings have affected my public life as well, how I respond to the mindset of the people at large or with whom I connect and with whom I do not. Private and public life are therefore inevitably related. 

I would also like to add a very personal experience of mine, which is related to my identity. I

identify as belonging to the Asexual/Aromantic community. While growing up, the idea of love and sexual desires always confused me. The heteronormative society had always instilled in us the importance of love and sex so much so that asexuality and aromanticism as an identity have never been seen or understood even by health care practitioners. There is so much ignorance and lack of representation that most of the individuals realize very late that they are actually asexual/aromantic and that these are valid identities. I have always felt like I am broken and that probably I do not deserve love, I had commitment issues and the idea of sex was never really pleasing. To be very honest I never really understood what love is, how is it defined, is there any particular definition. Why is everything viewed as romantic relationships and why is there no importance of queerplatonic relationships. I felt very lonely at times because I felt like I was different from my mates. I always felt like I was never the first priority for anyone. For most of the years, I felt like the family trauma that I had was affecting the way I viewed love and relationships. However, as I grew older I realized that need not be the case. While trauma could be one of the factors however asexuality and aromanticism are valid identities, an individual need not have to get their hormone level checked when visiting a mental health practitioner. An individual who identifies as an ace/aro need not be reminded with "I think you have not met the right one yet." An ace/aro person must be seen as valid. This identity needs representation not just outside the LGBTQIA space but within the LGBTQIA space as well. Many asexuals face corrective rape, which is as much of an issue which we do not talk about at all. Aros often seeks validation from others and has an identity crisis. Before just presuming things and passing judgments, it is important that we understand and read and know more. Understanding aromanticism and asexuality has helped me identify myself within a community in the public space and has made me realize how important it is to accept oneself as one is. This realization has not just helped me in my personal but professional and public life as well. 

Another issue I want to focus on is the controversy revolving around the Ronaldo case. Ronaldo had allegedly raped a woman and it is shocking how his fans have been defending him despite pieces of evidence against him. This is the power of blind idol worship and how the notion of "not all men" invalidates the experience of a woman who dares to come out and share her story. A woman needs to support another woman but in this case, I have seen how women are demeaning other women just so they can support a world star who is indeed a rapist. We must understand and critically analyze where the root cause of such a response is. We must do our fair share of research. We must apply it in our personal life and how somewhere or the other it is related. However, it is also important to note how this very core competency goes hand in hand with other competencies as well such as engaging diversity and difference in practice, advancing human rights, and social and economic justice which basically talks about understanding the source of oppression and discrimination, eliminate personal biases, etc. 

Within this core competency also falls demonstrating effective oral and written communication in working with individuals, families, groups, organizations, communities, and colleagues. Effective communication, be it oral or written, is very important in shaping one's personal, public and professional life. Effective communication in the form of interaction has helped me grow as an individual. I had met a number of people all throughout the years and I have learned and realized a number of things. I have tried to understand the source of a particular behavior and I have also learned about marginalization, caste-based oppression, and a number of Marxist ideologies during discussions. In my professional life when I go to communities I have learned about the problems that they face, the situation they live in, and how political parties seem to influence and manipulate these sections of society. While dealing with tribal communities, I have realized how oppressed they have been and how much they lack in terms of quality of life and how much of their resources have been taken away from them. All of these can only be understood when one practices effective communication while dealing with individuals and communities. When someone steals something, do we ever ask him/her/they as to what led them to do that? We tend to easily judge a prostitute and treat them like an object, but do we ever tend to ask what led them or maybe forced them into prostitution? Maybe child trafficking, maybe poverty, maybe oppression and marginalization because of their caste, class, gender, etc. Have we ever thought that they too deserve respect? Have we tried to interact and understand what they have to say. No. That is exactly why it is important to apply critical thinking in order to inform and communicate professional, personal, and public judgments.

THE CODE OF ETHICS AND THE APPLICATION OF SOCIAL JUSTICE

All of these competencies would not be fulfilled without the application of the code of ethics. If we do not keep in mind the code of ethics, all of these competencies will not be applied adequately. There are six core values that fall under the code of ethics in social work according to NASW. They are:

• Service

• Integrity

• Social justice

• Competence

• The importance of human relationships

• Dignity and worth of the client

While it is important to remember that all of these values are very important, I would primarily like to focus on Social Justice in accordance with the examples that I have mentioned above. 

As social workers, we have an obligation to challenge social conditions that contribute to social exclusion, stigmatization or subjugation, and to work towards an inclusive society. We must avoid being biased, we must read more, do more research and help sensitize the people around us so we can promote social justice. Let's start from the micro-level, let us start from our family. Let us understand the patriarchy, homophobia, transphobia, islamophobia, etc that prevails within us and our family, and let's try to educate ourselves first and then start an argument with our parents, sensitize them. That can be the first step towards social justice. Let us interact with the community people and sensitize them about their rights and talk to policymakers about the inadequate availability of resources within a community. When we talk on a personal level, we must realise where human rights are being violated, read more about the source and eventually advocate for social justice. As a woman, I have been asked to keep shut about the assault or molestation that I experienced when I was very young, I have to make it a point to understand why was I asked to keep shut, I have to sensitise and make the ones around me understand the evils of patriarchy and how it has affected me as well, why boys are allowed to walk free at night and we are not. With this, I must sensitize the women around me about the articles that are there for their protection and how they must not keep shut both in my public and professional life as well. That way we can do our bit in promoting and advocating for social justice. We must assess and challenge oppression and discrimination and not just feed on what the mainstream media and society have to offer. We must understand that there are so many hidden politics at play and how colonialism is being practiced to this date. 

All in all, to conclude we must apply critical thinking, must gather enough knowledge not just by reading but by interacting as well, and do adequate research before passing any kind of professional, public, or personal judgments. More so once we understand we must advocate for social justice in our own ways.